Northeast Activists Appeal China and India to Stop Constructing Dams

Itanagar, Sep 14 : Various organizations in the Northeast have appealed to both China and India to stop all existing and proposed dam construction activities on Siang River, which is known as Yarlung and Tsangpo in China and Brahmaputra in Assam.

In a joint letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, at least 50 organizations, including the Arunachal Citizens' Right (ACR), have expressed fear that the communities surviving on the river's ecosystem might get destroyed by the politics of water and energy.

China is not only building a series of dams but also diverting water in the upper reaches of the Siang river in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), they claimed.

It would result in massive reduction of water flow that would have irreparable and devastating impact on the ecosystems and the way of life in Tibet, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and in the lower reaches of Bangladesh, they said.

"We also fear that India's effort to build many dams, including the ones in Lohit and Subansiri rivers, is a way to preempt any Chinese dam upstream using the highly illogical view of stopping dams in upstream by building dams in the lower portion of the river," they said.

The activists have urged both the countries to refrain from building any dams on the river.

"This will help build peace and trust between the two countries. Building dams on Siang or in Yarlung and Tsangpo will therefore be considered as seeking conflict," the organisations added.